Our asthmatic cat is ruining my life, I haven't gotten a good night's sleep in months

My cat has several asthema attacks a night. Not life threatening, but it's like waking up to a goose honking in the bed.

Once this happens, I simply cannot fall back to sleep. If I've only been a couple hours, I might be able to get back to sleep, but if I've been asleep three or four hours, and he wakes me, I'm done.

If we lock him out of the room, he yowels continuously and paws at the door.

I can't sleep with earplugs, for some reason having earplugs in in a dark room with my eyes clothed triggers a claustrophobia response in me. It makes me feel like I'm trapped and I start panicking.

I don't know what to do but I can't even get to work when I've had that little sleep because I'm too delirious to drive.